In this case…real-life legal stories

A North Carolina judge has ruled that four sex convicted sex offenders could not be subjected to lifetime monitoring—their ankle bracelets and waist transmitters have been removed. The constitutional issues of lifetime monitoring are unresolved. (Charlotte Observor)

Five disabled travelers have sued Northwest Airlines and Metro Airport in Detroit, alleging violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act and other federal regulations that ensure equal access. The suit was filed by Richard Bernstein, a blind man who flies out of the Detroit airport weekly. The suit describes damaged wheelchairs, lack of boarding assistance, and other concerns. (Detroit Free Press)

Boston University students have all been assured of more privacy for their internet activities since last week, when a federal judge ruled that BU cannot turn over the names of students who have used sites suspected by the recording industry of enabling illegal downloads of music files. Recording companies have brought some 20,000 cases nationwide for copyright infringement, many against students. (Boston.com)

Toni Locy, a former reporter for USA Today, has told a federal court that she will not reveal her confidential sources for a story on the 2001 anthrax attacks. The trial judge ordered Locy to pay daily sanctions of up to $5,000 out of her own pocket, despite the fact that she is still appealing her case. An appellate judge suspended the order. (AP/LexisONE, National Press Photographers Assoc.)

FIRST-PERSON….I had to go to jail because in 1998 I got a DWI, and then last April I got pulled over after a couple of beers. When you have a prior these days, they’re much more harsh about drinking and driving. The penalty could have been one year in jail if I had gone to trial and lost. My lawyer said, your best bet is to plead and take the DC mandatory, five days in jail. I pleaded and took the five days. It’s not a full five days, it’s called a weekend. You go at seven at night on a Friday and you’re released on Tuesday morning at seven. Leading up to my weekend I read about the DC jail, about the people that have died there and the mayhem that goes on there, and I got pretty nervous. I read one article about the lawsuits that are pending for people that were left in there and forgotten about. For days, weeks, months…. Read more »

Alex Friedmann spent six years in a Tennessee prison run by the world’s largest private prison company, Corrections Corporation of America. During his sentence Friedmann sued CCA, alleging the company retaliated against him for critical comments made to the press. Now an editor at Prison Legal News, Friedmann has found that Gus Puryear, general counsel for CCA, has been nominated to the federal bench, despite a record of only two federal trials. If still confirmed, Puryear would oversee dozens of criminal cases a year, potentially sentencing defendants to private prisons run by his former employer. Friedmann, ever vigilant, is organizing opposition to the appointment. (AP, Mother Jones, Corpwatch)

Raelynn Campbell said the initial store offer of $900 wasn’t even enough to cover the cost of the laptop that the store admitted losing. Neither was a later offer worth $1600, nor the additional $2,500 offered to withdraw her lawsuit. Campbell says that her time lost and the irreplaceable personal and financial information on her laptop warranted an entirely different level of attention. Thus her lawsuit for $54 million. Read the story at The Red Tape Chronicles/MSNBC, along with the thousands of supportive comments.

Flickr photo “My New Toy” by joker1020.

Two immigrants seeking to stay in the U.S.–one to escape religious persecution and one to stay with his U.S. wife—have reached a settlement with U.S. immigration authorities. Both were part of a lawsuit alleging they were forcibly injected with sedatives while immigration authorities attempted to deport them. Raymond Seoth will receive $5,000, Amadou Diouf will receive $50,000, and immigration authorities will follow a new policy restricting such druggings. (Jurist, ACLU)

Flor Crisostomo believes she is taking a stand of civil disobedience against U.S. immigration policies. Crisostomo has ignored an order of deportation to Mexico and instead moved into an apartment above the same Chicago church that housed undocumented immigrant Elvira Arellano for a year before her deportation. (AP, Chicago Sun-Times)

Five death-row inmates in Missouri have asked the state to provide more information on the criminal backgrounds of individual executioners after learning that one was on probation for stalking. (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)